Flat Fee Brokers:Will local agents boycott on MLS with 2.5 broker cooperation? (buyer, price)

[FLKitties]

As mentioned above, do not rely on the Zestimate! Read this: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ev...rth-2016-09-15

“We call it a Zestimate and not a zeppraisal and not a zeprice. It’s meant to be a starting point,” Rascoff said. “To determine a more accurate opinion of a home’s value you should hire a real-estate agent, or more to the point, you should sell the house and then you will know how much it’s worth.”

At one point homeowner's could claim their home on Zillow and add the appraisal value (not sure if they allow that any longer as they've made some changes to owner access over the past few months) but it did not appear to affect the Zestimate value any. Also, Zillow just throws out a Zestimate based on their algorithms. They don't take into consideration what a home actually looks like inside or out. Further, it highlights the single Zestimate figure in a prominent location and buries the Zestimate range a little further in and that figure, at least on our property, goes $20k in either direction from our listed Zestimate. Our home is in a new development where completed homes haven't fully gone onto the tax rolls yet and Zillow's algorithm is factoring in "Local Tax Assessments" in the Home Value section at just over $75k while there are no houses being built in the area for under $350k. So don't rely on Zestimates as a buyer or seller.

[lovetotravel15]

Originally Posted by j-johnson

If you are looking for an accurate, precise value estimate, do yourself a favor and forget you ever heard of this trash called "Zestimates". They are only good for ballpark, whereas a professional appraisal is required by state law to conform to and comply with very strict and exacting requirements. They are performed by educated, trained, experienced, vetted professionals, and held to very high standards of completeness and accuracy. Their reports must withstand scrutiny up to and including a court of law. Anyone who tells you different is lying. Anyone want to guess if "Zestimates" are held to the same standards? You get 3 guesses and the first two don't count.

If you are concerned about the results of the appraisal, you can have it professionally reviewed or you can order another one. Money well spent. Do you want accuracy, or do you want someone to tell you what you think you want to hear?

Please understand I'm not directing the sarcasm towards you personally, I am simply trying to give you good, reliable information so you can make the best decision for yourself. Best of luck with your move. :-)

Appraisal was done by same firm 9 years ago when we purchased. Same firm performed this one last week; Feel confident in their professional reputation.

[jhtread]

what do you think is a better option for listing a home. Price property at market value with fair buyers agent commission. or below market value price with a below market buyers agent commission.

[bmw335xi]

Originally Posted by jhtread

what do you think is a better option for listing a home. Price property at market value with fair buyers agent commission. or below market value price with a below market buyers agent commission.

Depending on the market, price range... pricing under market value is an actual strategy to create a bidding war that goes far above the asking price. This has nothing to do with commission rate.

[Bellamouse]

Inquiring minds need to know.... Did your appraisal come out for the same price as you were intending to list at?

[lovetotravel15]

Originally Posted by Bellamouse

Inquiring minds need to know.... Did your appraisal come out for the same price as you were intending to list at?

Havent received appraisal report yet, promised by today.

[aridon]

Only read the OP

Sold 3 properties in the last year with a flat fee broker. No issues. Many other in previous years, no issues. Paid 3% to the buyers agent, $300 iirc to list per property. My phone blew up with calls from agents, they didn't care one bit. They want to get paid and a lot of the regular listings are 2 or 2.5% because the listing agent is a pig.

[lovetotravel15]

Update: Received appraisal, lowered listing price on Friday by $10K. Still no activity by local agents; shown by 2 agents, about 30 minutes away from us. Terminated Flat Fee Listing Yesterday. Will be multiple listing with Full Service Local Town Agent at 5%. I am certain that my theory is correct, realtors are holding out for us to list full service. They don't want to accept 3%, they want to start a trend of flat fee listings. Really ignorant though, now, instead of a buyer agent getting 3%, they will only get 2.5%; not too bright!

[jhtread]

Originally Posted by lovetotravel15

Update: Received appraisal, lowered listing price on Friday by $10K. Still no activity by local agents; shown by 2 agents, about 30 minutes away from us. Terminated Flat Fee Listing Yesterday. Will be multiple listing with Full Service Local Town Agent at 5%. I am certain that my theory is correct, realtors are holding out for us to list full service. They don't want to accept 3%, they want to start a trend of flat fee listings. Really ignorant though, now, instead of a buyer agent getting 3%, they will only get 2.5%; not too bright!

is your theory really correct? or was your property just over priced? not photographed well? market for your property not hot right now?

your logic of a buying agent not showing your property to a buyer to try and boycott FSBOs in hopes of getting the listing is pretty insane. if you offer 3% commission thats all they care about. they make the same amount of money doing that vs you listing with with a traditional agent.

better yet do this, list it yourself FSBO, and offer 4% buying agent incentive. so now your saving 1% vs doing what your doing now and also offering the most buyers agent incentive.

Having said all that it sounds like you personally will benefit and realize the full value of the 2.5% sellers agent commission here.

[bmw335xi]

Originally Posted by lovetotravel15

Update: Received appraisal, lowered listing price on Friday by $10K. Still no activity by local agents; shown by 2 agents, about 30 minutes away from us. Terminated Flat Fee Listing Yesterday. Will be multiple listing with Full Service Local Town Agent at 5%. I am certain that my theory is correct, realtors are holding out for us to list full service. They don't want to accept 3%, they want to start a trend of flat fee listings. Really ignorant though, now, instead of a buyer agent getting 3%, they will only get 2.5%; not too bright!

Realtors aren't going to refuse a showing because of that lol. I know a lot of them. They would rather keep their client and make them happy. As you've seen here a lot of us don't want to deal with FSBO people for a variety of reasons. You didn't mention what your asking price was vs what the appraisal came out to be. We don't know how you are marketing the property, the pictures you've used, etc.


Let a professional handle it, now I hope you made the right choice choosing a realtor. I hope you did a couple listing appointment interviews to see examples of their previous work, the types of photos they use, the marketing strategy they use, etc.


It's 2019, buyers will search for properties themselves even when working with a realtor and then say, "hey I found this one, I want to tour it this week" the 2% vs 3% thing has really no affect for 99% of realtors. It has mostly to do with not wanting to deal with a FSBO property.